The Calling
by Lady Sanonoke
Summary: Lately i have been revisiting this story, which was written a few years ago, at least, so im redoing teh chapters one by one. Don't expect the story to be added to for a little bit, at least.
1. Life with Hitomi

Disclaimer: I do not own escaflowne, or any of the characters thereof.

The Dream

Hitomi dreamt in rustling velvet, colors of satin and lace swirling around in a colorful masquerade of feelings and thoughts. In the great stone room, hung with tapestries depicting slain dragons and long forgotten heroes, each a dark reminder in hand-picked thread of Fanelia's brutal past. Four couples danced to the string quartet, yet there was no grace in their fear-stiffened movements. The swirl of the skirt dulled without it's usual vigor. Each lovingly embroidered slipper found its mark, yet there was no spring in the steps of the young dancers.

The fear was almost tangible in the room, a dark shadow quickly crossing the faces of ill-trained courtiers, to be covered in the light of a fake smile. _What, _Hitomi wondered, a silent spectator hidden in the cover of invisibility, _Fanelia has never been a place of fear?_

She examined the face of a young woman next to her, staring deep into her eyes. The woman had an exquisite gown of deep blue velvet embroidered with climbing gold leaves and trimmed with the finest, most intricate lace worked in a pattern of climbing roses, a perfect complement to her cold midnight hair. And yet her gown was nothing compared to her face. Her lips pursed in a strange combination of knowing and innocence, the shape belying their bright red color. Her skin was pale like freshly poured cream, the kind of skin that felt as soft as it looked and invited the touch of a man. Her nose was as strait as her ramrod back. And her eyes. Her eyes were a symphony of blue seas and sky's, emotions found in a lover's bed and a lover's grave swirling about in their depths, beneath those perfectly arched eyebrows.

Yet they were not focused on Hitomi, but someone past her. The young woman stretched out a hand to meet another, and Hitomi followed the movement with her gaze. She took in the tall black boots, rigorously shined metal clasps and laced. The perfectly tan and supple leather, sliding like a second skin up this man's legs, and the satin blood-red coat, lined with a surprisingly soft cream. She took this all in, and trembled as she rose to meet the man's gaze.

Hitomi screamed, and the room collapsed in on itself.

She woke screaming, or trying to with as much power as her abused body could muster.

"I can't remember his face" she cried in a voice that whispered like a spider's dream, from a throat unused to speech. Tears rolled down her thin thin cheeks, from her dark dark eyes. Her hands looked like twigs, and in the sharp outline of the moon, like bone.

She struggled to the mirror, catching her overlarge nightshirt on chairs and drawers, finally coming to rest at her vanity. And as she did look, she found the face of a skull staring back. It shocked her, until she realized it was only a trick of the light.

"I can't live like this," she cried and sank her head down unto her skeletal arms.

_And Why should you, _whispered that insidious little voice residing in the midst of her gray depression. _You could end it all now, no one the wiser, not Yukari whom you'vepushed away, or your mother or your brother, both who can not bear to see you, nor Van…_

"God, I can't even think his name anymore, it just hurts too much." It was three in the morning, and she wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon. Thoughts of the time she spent on Gaia, and longing for that simpler time in her life led her wandering mind to her tarot cards. Ensconced in their own box, she hadn't touched them in years, and a fine coating of dust had sifted even into the confines of the glass box. The temptation overroad her resolve not to meddle with the future, and she flipped opened the lid.

"Just one card" she promised herself, and with a nonchalance she didn't feel, looked at the image. La Torre, of course, the separation card. She was separated from her previous life, and about to separate from life itself.

Her resolve hardened. She would go through with it. Besides, she wanted to see an angel, one last time.


	2. on Gaia

On Gaia

"Its been two years" said van to the empty air in front of him. She must be dead, and every passing day drove that truth deeper into his heart, tearing out the humanity that was there.

His court milled behind him. Oh he knew what lay behind their honey coated words and false smiles. They thought him mad, but they feared him for the very reason that they gathered here today. He had become the king, the tyrant, the executioner of Fanelia. Of course, no one would say all these lovely little titles to his face.

"You are being charged of treason, what is your plea," Van addressed the exquisite little midnight girl who had humiliated him publicly. It was the first such death in the history of Fanelia, and it would not be the last.

"Please, milord, please" her voice broke, and she drew in a weak shuddering breath. Van looked upon her thoughtfully, seeing how much her spirit had broken in those simple words. This was not a woman made to beg. Her white shift flowed down her curves, catching the gentle secrets of a woman's body. It was not that he had repulsed the women. Indeed, they threw themselves upon his bed more often than not. It was just that they had not been HER.

"At least tell me what I've done lord, I am loyal to Fanelia – loyal to you, _please my lord_…"

"Stop your begging, wench" his contemptuous voice rose hoarse out of his throat. "I will give you mercy" his lips curved just a bit as she ran forward and knelt before him. He lay one slender hand on her head.

"The mercy of Death" he whispered as he stabbed his belt knife through her neck. Her blood ran in rivers through her midnight hair, and those haunted eyes that Hitomi gazed for so long into remained open, with one last look of shock at the king who had changed so suddenly.

A spasm of horror passed his face, quickly damped. One, stumbling step, then two, and he had his face under control again. His voice rang out over the audience, "Let this be a lesson to you all." And he turned, nearly running to get away from the accusing eyes. The only one brave enough to follow the mad king was a shadow in the corner.

Van strode angrily along the hall, smearing glistening blood on the gray stones. He didn't know why he had killed the girl. It was if, at the last, something had come over him, severing all his thought and emotion, controlling him.

"Lord Van" He heard a soft question behind him, and turned to see Merle, he fur ragged and clotted with grease, and her clothes so coarse they rubbed off her fur. He closed his eyes again. Was it him who made her like this? When? How, how could he have done such a thing?

"Lord Van, you must stop. Stop this cruelty and killing. It is wrong, it is not like you. You are kind and gentle –" her words abruptly stopped as his hand hit the side of her face leaving a trail of blood that mingled new with tears shed from those accusing eyes. Her words had reminded him of the part of his soul that had died with Hitomi, and he had lashed out in self hatred. The feeling only intensified at the shocked and angry expression on Merle's emaciated face.

"You would never have done that to Hitomi" she spat the words at him, each a barb to his wounded heart, and ran away from the king she once loved.


	3. The Fall

Hitomi stood thinking of her life as the city of Tokyo spread before her, the metropolis beautiful in its smog shawl. The people's longing reached out to her, seeking a kindred spirit as she walked along with her much-worn duffel bag. Boring little people in their boring little lives looked away as they chopped leeks for dinner, or sat down to balance a check book, feeling her wish to be away. Some people were actually happy in their lives, and she envied them. Two years ago had been the last touch of happiness, and it had been ripped away with half of her soul.

She looked up, her long hair, freshly washed and gleaming, swayed behind her, tickling the small of her back with its ends. Tokyo tower had never seemed so tall, or so foreboding.

"Because I would not stop for Death…" Hitomi whispered in slightly accented English. She then snorted in slight amusement at the cliché. _What did Emily Dickonsen have to commit suicide over anyways? She never left the house. At most she lived a pale and emotionless life. Oh wait – reality check, you are leading a pale and emotionless life as well, dear heart. _The self depreciating thoughts had brought her to the door.She was stopped by a guard in a garishly cheery uniform, clashing almost unbearably with her present mood. He looked at her strangely thinking of how much trouble he would be in if this thin woman collapsed while going up the stairs.

"Ma'am, if you want to see the tower, please come back in the morning. It is almost time for the lifts to stop working. And I wouldn't want you to be stuck up there." He was perfectly polite – the modern day gentleman not really paying attention to the girl in front of him. Hitomi swayed with a sudden vision of him at home with his wife. Perfect.

"I'm so sorry to disturb you, but I was here earlier and left a bracelet on the landing. I checked for it at the lost and found, but no one had turned it in. Please, I won't be a second, just let me look." She kept her eyes downcast so he wouldn't remember their startling color. She wanted no one to remember her, she just wanted to fade away from this sea of humanity.

After he nodded his assent she walked briskly over to the lift, got on and examined her surroundings. The glass was smooth and clear, painstakingly cleaned of the grimy fingerprints stains that accumulate during the day and her reflection showed clearly. She opened her bag to pull out a hairbrush, and began the arduous process of putting up her hair. Each lank she wound through with silver thread, and each braid with gold, finally pinning them all back into a bundle of curls on the back of hear head, high off the graceful nape of her neck.

She sighed in the long past still elevator. It was all she could do until she had more privacy. Her bag contained a single gown, forest green silk, with a simple cut outlining her trim (to emaciated) figure, and a flared skirt that swirled as she moved, like the wake of a boat through water. It was embroidered with silver and gold thread, in the designs of feathers falling.

Unrecalled, the elevator door opened, as if silently questioning its passenger.

She stood, looking like a queen stepping to the guillotine and put on the gown, shedding herself of everything in this world with her clothes. She placed them back into her bag though, that she would leave behind no evidence. She laughed quietly at herself. _Of course they would find evidence_. Her body on the ground.

She stepped up to the rail, and daintily placed one slipper on the wrought iron rail, and stood, balanced for one moment. And the she fell. As she plummeted she said one word, like a caress on the wind "Van…"

Because she was looking at the stars she never saw the air beneath her open, and as she fainted she never felt the slowing of her descent.


	4. The Tear

The Tear  
  
Van stood on a vine-covered balcony over looking the gardens of his palace. The scents of herbs and flowers reached up to meet him, their smells the perfect complement to the nightly orchestra.  
  
It calmed him, and saddened him, because with each passing moment his longing grew stronger, and he gasped, it hurt him so much. He stared at the inlaid box before him, wondering if he was brave enough to open that part of his heart again, with the innocent blood that stained his hands.  
  
Suddenly angry, he threw open the box and grabbed the pendant from its soft cushion, and was about to throw it and all it entailed into the night, when it suddenly pulsed, like a small candle.  
  
He saw Hitomi, and his eyes widened, because she was standing on a rail, and just as suddenly she leaned back to be enfolded by ebony. Was this how she met her end? He wondered. Did she really take her own life those two long years ago? Why, why couldn't I save her? "WHY WASN"T I THERE FOR HER?!!!" He shouted angrily at the night.  
  
In a moment of weakness he felt one tear slither down his cheek, burning like oil with his passion. He turned and jumped and that single, diamond tear fell upon the pendant. As his wings grew, layer upon layer of unearthly, glowing white, the pendant flashed, and everything was enveloped in blue light.  
  
The sky opened above him, briefly covering the Mystic moon, that hung in the sky like a bubble or the finest glass, and in the midst of that azure light eh saw a figure, slowing floating to the ground on a cloud of feathers.  
  
  
  
  
  
***  
  
I am sorry this is so short, its just a connector that I needed to get out of the way. I promise, ill have more interesting and informative chapters up soon, explaining why all this mysterious stuff is happening. 


	5. The Chamber

Get ready chaps! The chapter you've been waiting for has finally arrived. EVERYTHING IS EXPLAINED!!!! I know, you are leaping for joy.  
  
***  
  
The Chamber.  
  
It was as dark as life-blood in the red-veined marble and ebony hall. Yet, however much the hall chilled the soul, it was nothing in comparison to the woman who sat upon the Dark Throne.  
  
She lounged, clothed in a strange leather dress, extremely thin and supple, which clung to her every curve. Her lips were perfectly sculpted, though now twisted into a snarl of rage as she tasted the acid on the air that told of a passing between worlds.  
  
She stroked her dress, to calm herself, and smiled. The little donor was such a sweet slave, with the most marvelous skin. Pure and porcelain. There was still a little bit of despair residing in that pelt, reminding the wearer of her absolute dominance.  
  
But still, she had worked so hard to prevent those two from coming together. At a wave of her hand an image appeared, of Hitomi's emaciated face. It had been the perfect plan. The woman's soft voice hissed as she laughed, the asp of the temple. The poor little seer had obeyed her every whim after she had severed the bond.  
  
The laugh died. Except in those dreams. It would seem that both called strongly enough to each other to undo her careful planning. Even to get passes the block she put between the worlds.  
  
Ah, but the little prince. Van's face appeared shimmering. He hadn't slipped very far from his leash. Perhaps the plan could be saved. 


	6. Return

Van pumped his wings as hard as he could using pure will to go fast enough to get hitomi off of her slowly descending cloud. He didn't have time to think, but he could feel again. The hole that had been growing so slowly in his heart was filled as soon as he saw her, filled with her presence, filled with her pain.  
  
He took her beautiful body in his arms, wanting to cover her and protect her as she lay helpless in his arms. She sighed and curled into him, tucking her face under his chin. Van could feel her light breath fluttering against his neck, reassuring him that this woman in his arms was no wraith or fantasy, but real, and his.  
  
He landed on the stones at the front of his palace, and Merle came out to take help with Hitomi. She ran, as cats do, scampering across the courtyard, casting fearful glances at him, but shy, excited smiles on Hitomi. That is, until he brought he rinto the light.  
  
Life had not been good to her. Her cheeks were sunken, her shoulders thin. He had not noticed in the night, where shadows may or may not be moonlight's follies. Van had her taken up to his room immediately, and called doctors to come look at her, for he knew that whatever was to be done had to be quickly, before he lost her forever.  
  
All Van wanted to do was hold vigil at Hitomi's bedside, but Merle took the opportunity to corner him.  
  
"Lord Van - no, you no longer deserve the title. Think, think of what you have done in the past days, in the past YEAR, and then think about whether or not she will accept that. She loved the man you were, but I doubt she will love the person you've become." She looked so wise, beyond her years, in her humble garments and tattered fur. Van eyes dimmed, and became hard, like two garnets.  
  
"She will love me - she must." It was all he said, and yet to his own ears he found it to be full of false bravado. Merle knew as well, he could see the pity in her eyes. He wanted to run, to think, he needed time to think, as he hadn't been able to in two years.  
  
"Merle." He kept his eyes downcast as he forced out these words. "Merle, please, watch over Hitomi. I don't think that I- that I." he found he couldn't finish. He remembered the blood on his hands, and couldn't finish. He remembered the course garments of Merle, and couldn't finish. And above all, he remembered the fear in the children's eyes as he rode past, and couldn't finish.  
  
He barely nodded as he heard her assent, and then bolted for the graveside of his family. He had let it be grown over, and it looked compelling in the moonlight. Gently swaying blossoms, closed for the night, hung on their stalk, letting only the barest scent escape their clutch.  
  
"oh, brother, mother, what should I do?" he asked of the cold stone monuments. He didn't expect an answer, of course, because all of the people he beseeched were dead. He fell deeper and deeper into self pity, thinking of how Hitomi could never love a man who had killed, and conveniently forgetting all the times he had enjoyed killing in the heat of battle. He did not forget however, he accusing eyes as she left him for the Mystic Moon that first, dreadful time.  
  
"Believe." he heard the quiet whisper, but heeded it not, accounting it to some mystery of the ebon night.  
  
"Believe, my son" His head started up, and with wide eyes he looked around for the source of that well-loved voice.  
  
"Believe, my brother" He strained his eyes to make out shapes in the moonlight, and yet could see nothing.  
  
"Believe in her heart, and yours.." The voices faded into the distance. Van ran, taking no note of the branches slapping his arms, and the thorn ruining his gorgeously expensive clothes. He simply wanted to hold onto those precious voices, and ask them what do.  
  
He ran out into water, the moon shining around him in a haze of silver, reaching out to be held as he hadn't since he was a child. He felt a brief touch, almost nothing more than a breeze, against his cheek, and heard, once more, his mother's pure fluting voice.  
  
"Go to her." and it was gone. 


	7. At the bedside

Hitomi awoke in a sumptuous bed, the feel of which brought to mind the wind on bare skin, and the smell of goldenrod and grass was carried to her nose like a beacon. Her heavy eyes opened and she found herself surrounded by worried faces. Her emotions were at war; she was supposed to be dead, just like -  
  
And then she saw him. His hair was a bit longer than two years ago, and hung round his face in unruly waves that escaped the hair tie in the back, at the nape of his neck. His face was shaper, thin and pensive. There was an underlying something that Hitomi couldn't place, something not right, but at that moment she didn't care.  
  
"Van!" she cried, and sprang up to hug him. Or tried to. Her voice sounded unused, raspy and soft, like sand. Her body wouldn't respond, only a slight twitch of her hand was all she could manage. So she focused all of her energy on reaching out those few inches, knowing that if she could just feel the touch of his skin again, everything would be allright, everything would be forgiven.  
  
The entire room watched the agonized progress of that quivering hand, Van staying as still as a statue, understanding the need in Hitomi, to do this thing herself, to not depend on him to finish anything for her.  
  
She felt the most pure joy in her heart as she touched him, and then felt it obliterated in horror as she met his eyes, and saw there the memory of what he had done, the memory of the innocent blood he had spilt.  
  
Her eyes rolled up in sorrow, and she collapsed again on the crocheted cover, her hand almost, but not quite, touching the sullen king to her side. 


	8. The Blood Pact

I don't want to end up with twenty something chapters (even though it probably will be . . . the never ending stoooooryyy. . . lalalalalala. Haha, anyways, I decided to make the chapters longer. Which was the point of this little note thingy.  
  
***  
  
Van watched as Hitomi lay motionless on his bed. She looked so frail, and he was overcome at once by the fear that he would lose her forever. His depression grew darker as he dwelled upon his past actions, knowing them to be the reason for Hitomi's collapse. He was afraid to touch her again, in case that would drive her from him more surely, but he longed to hold her against him, to feel her lean into his embrace. For he had also felt, along with her horror at his murder, that first flash of joy. That joy was his hope.  
  
He gazed at her intently, knowing inside that something was wrong with her, that she wasn't healing for a reason. He looked closer, and closer, ignoring the doctors murmuring around him. His hand was a breath away from her throat when she convulsed, her muscles becoming tight with an inner tension. In panic, he grabbed her to him, and held her as she screamed, letting her pain siphon into him. Her eyes were wild, blank, seeing something that no one else could, and her arms stayed pinned at her sides, as if invisible bonds held them there. She screamed then, a sound so bestial and furious that it the very foundation of the castle shook with it, and in the forest, the dragons cringed away, without knowing why.  
  
She gasped suddenly, and fell limp in his arms. A doctor rushed over to her. He was young and idealistic, healing every person without fail to the best of his ability. His kind eyes showed pity to the king whom he feared with every fiber of his being.  
  
"Milord, she has lost so much blood, and is so thin. We must give her some living, healthy blood or we will lose her." He said it all softly, though he looked the king strait in the eyes, so that he would know the truth of his words.  
  
"So be it," van said. His voice held the suppressed passion of all these years. He pulled up the tattered sleeve on his right arm.  
  
"Milord! You mustn't, we don't know how she will react to your . . . heritage" the doctor gulped, fearing the wrath of his king. But Van just shook his head, and smiled. He would never do anything to hurt her; nothing made of him would hurt her, not his bone, not his blood.  
  
"Use my blood," he said in a voice so soft and full of love that it brooked no argument. His eyes met every doctor's in that room and one after one they looked down. Van thought to himself, in those quiet moments, that perhaps saving Hitomi could redeem him.  
  
So the doctors gathered around him, gently pushing, him into place, with the quiet acceptance of the inevitable that doctors show in times where they don't have hope. They drove needles into his skin, his neck, his arms, and connected it all to Hitomi.  
  
The doctors didn't think she would survive.  
  
They hadn't counted on the power of Van's love, or on Hitomi's will to survive so that she could see Van once more.  
  
Van had held the pendant wrapped around his wrist while he sat and watched over Hitomi the long night before, and now it fell between their palms as he reached for her hand. He didn't notice the drop of blood sliding between their palms, even as he said "I give myself, Van de Fanel, king of Fanelia, to love you and be thy beloved, my dear Hitomi."  
  
Hidden in shadow, no one saw the pendant's slight pulse being absorbed by the skin of both, like water falling on a dry sponge. It was erratic at first, then stronger, barely dimming between beats. Finally a bright red flashed covered the two bodies in a ruby glow that slowly faded, pulsing as one.  
  
The young idealistic doctor witnessing this miracle realized it first. The pulse was a heartbeat. Two heartbeats, in perfect time with each other.  
  
Suddenly Hitomi moved. She reached up a hand, and stared with heavy, but glad eyes into Van's, and stroked his cheek. Her fingers felt like the barest touch of feathers on his skin, but those eyes struck him like lightning, cleansing him to the depths of his soul. She had forgiven him. He rejoiced before falling asleep. He was forgiven. . . 


	9. The Dark Court

The dark woman stroked the back of the quivering slave beside her, each touch of her long nails rending the poor girl's skin. The woman casually licked her nails as she stared at the enigma before her.  
  
She was encountering that same problem as the idiot Dornkirk did. The two of them together had the power to make their own fate, instead of obediently following her plan. That wouldn't do at all.  
  
Thinking back she began to grow angry. How dare that girl?! She should have accepted her bonds, just like the little king does. Only, he doesn't now does he? That stupid girl had to go and fight back, and make the Van I cultivated so carefully break his leash and save her. And the little seer knows now that he is controlled. She couldn't have missed something that blatant in her soulmate. Something shall have to be done -  
  
The woman was distracted for a moment by a clawing at her hands. In her displeasure she had accidentally grabbed the slaves neck. With a sick, fierce joy she slit the ivory girl's throat, and drank, long and hard, of her strength. A trail of blood flowed down her mouth and throat, finally dripping onto the floor, which absorbed it almost as eagerly as its mistress.  
  
Finally finished she threw the carcass into a rancid pool in the middle of the columned room, where countless bones of futile sacrifices slowly shifted in an eerie current.  
  
It was time for drastic measures. The dark power pooling in the room flowed around the woman, making her hair and clothes shift, ever so slightly, as if blown in the wind. She welcomed it, relishing the pain that was its source.  
  
Dornkirk never did truly understand the source of power. He always assumed it was his science, that his sorcerers were nothing more than dabblers in the arcane. He didn't even question when something happened that couldn't be explained by science. Well, that was the way she had wanted it. He had made such a useful henchman, until that mistake with the catgirls.  
  
The woman's thoughts stopped for a second as she was carried on waves into a corrupted bliss. The power sped through her, and she molded it to her will. Not even the little seer would be able to overcome this! She laughed, high and eerie, that echoed off of high ceilings and ruined domes.  
  
Let the little mortals have their fun. They will rot with their "eternal love" while she bathed both worlds in blood. 


	10. Revelations

Revelations  
  
A bright bluebird warbled a sweet song, perched on the tender green shoots of vines that had come creeping shyly up Hitomi's balcony while she slept. The bird's pure tones, however, woke her as the vines had not, and she stepped out to greet the day. She hadn't realized that she was wearing a VERY thin shift, nor that she was being watched.  
  
The low whistled immediately made her blush and look down, ducking into a little ball on the slate stone as soon as she noticed that this particular nighty was more lace than anything else.  
  
"hssst, Hitomi, modesty is not needed among friends" whispered Merle as she stepped out from the shadows. A far cry from the kitchens Merle too had been caught in the drastic changes that Van had made, and so was now wearing a short silk crimson shift. Her fur glowed in the morning light, and the expression of amazement on Hitomi's face made her whoop with glee.  
  
"Honestly, you'd think that you would be used to it by now, after all, you've had that cute little doctor hovering around you for days now..not to mention Vaaaaaannnnn" Merle winked cheekily and jumped up to balance on the rail.  
  
"Why you little." Hitomi's laughter robbed her of speech. She rose in a fluid motion to her feet and pulled Merle off the rail into a tight hug. "Oh, I never thought I'd see any of you again" she whispered into her furry thin shoulder.  
  
"Oh Hitomi," Merle said as tears slid down her face , " You don't know what it was like, seeing you again, and you were so thin.we didn't think you would live" She hugged the slender form tightly, not realizing that Hitomi had started to pull away.  
  
That's right, she thought, remembering the wraith that had stared back at her from the window, I was dying. She looked down at her long limbs, seeing them to be slender, not emaciated. And her movement.she remembered stories of people who were bedridden feeling weak. I don't feel weak, Hitomi thought, I feel.reborn.  
  
"Merle, please, tell me everything that has happened in the last two years. I have to know why.how." Hitomi couldn't put to words the horrific memories in her head. Merle sighed. She had been dreading this moment, because she knew that Hitomi would ask for and expect, complete honesty.  
  
"You're communication was everything to him Hitomi, because he knew that no matter how lonely he got, no matter what happened to him, that there would always you. The day that stopped he fell. He sat in his room for hours, locked himself in. He gradually turned away from everyone, including me.  
  
All he knew was that the connection was gone. Three years had passed and that link had always been there. He could only assume that you were dead, or that you loved someone else, because the bond had been founded on love.  
  
It drove him to the brink of madness, Hitomi. There are scars on his wrist from where he tried to cut himself." Merle looked down, trying to think of whether she should tell Hitomi of her own treatment or not.  
  
"Merle," Hitomi's soft voice rang over the courtyard, "Please, you don't have tell me everything. I know enough from what I saw in van to guess, if you don't want to unearth painful memories."  
  
"No," her voice was harsh, "I must tell you. He took up his 'kingly' duties with a vengeance. All of his advisors could not control him, for he instituted a power of veto. His word was law, Hitomi, and oh, the things he said. Taxes were raised, all wasted on throwing extravagant parties, the beast people were made worse than slaves, even I, Hitomi, I who had grown up with him was forced to be a menial kitchen drudge" her words dripped with poisoned wounds.  
  
"That was a year ago. Its gotten worse ever since. Millerna, Allen, Dryden, all of them had forsaken him, breaking alliances and making new ones for the sake of their own countries. The prison's are filled with thousands of people simply arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time., or in the way of his majesty's carriage.  
  
"But no one was killed. Everyone was so afraid though, so afraid, and that poor little girl finally dared to defy him. That's was when he broke and became the monster we all feared.  
  
"but oh Hitomi, with you here it will all be better, you'll see, you can make him go back to the person he was" Merle threw herself down and lay her haed in Hitomi's lacy lap, while her strong hands gently played with her hair and stroked the back of her ears until her shoulders stopped quivering.  
  
"Hitomi..what did happen that day two years ago. You didn't die. Did you" Merle bit her lip, now resting back on her knees and gazing up to the sad face with red rimmed eyes, "did you stop loving Van?"  
  
Hitomi looked puzzled at this, a little crease forming between her eyebrows as she strung the events on a web of time.  
  
"Nothing.nothing happened. Like you said, it was fine for three years. I finished high school, went to college, I had a good life. And every day I would fall asleep thinking of my dragon prince," a little smile tugged on her rose petal lips, and a blush rose across her cheeks like light in dawn.  
  
"But after the connection was gone I did almost the same thing as van. I pushed everyone I cared about away. But right before we lost the connection I had I vision. I had almost forgotten about it. You see, I thought van was dead because the next day I found the death card face up on the floor. But the dreams.I hopes, I prayed, that sometimes they were real, but every morning I would feel anew that anguish that comes from losing someone who is your other half. What drove me to suicide was that I couldn't remember his face it was just a blur. I couldn't remember his face." Hitomi's breath caught, and she drank in deep steadying breaths.  
  
"But if the separation was caused neither by you nor by Van, something else must again be happening to Gaia" Merle said, eyes wide with an excited whisper. Hitomi remembered then that she was very much still a child.  
  
"Merle, why would you think that? Couldn't it be that this was caused by some passing flotsam between the worlds? What if the barrier that separated Earth from Gaia were to thicken, would the link remain? There is so much that we don't know, don't go adding a sinister force to the mysteries." Hitomi slightly condescendingly looked down on the young catwoman, who had matured far more than Hitomi in some ways.  
  
"Let me tell you something Hitomi. You were only able to forgive van because you saw that underneath that cold heart of his there still lived the Van you loved. Now, do you think that he REALLY would go around murdering people. I tell you this, he looked like a puppet on that dias. Something was affecting him, affecting his judgment. SOMETHING tried to kill you, or bond you, VAN FELT IT, YOU felt it, and you can't deny it Hitomi." The victim of Merle's tongue lashing stood silent, musing. Something had tried to bond her, and she had barely been able to fight it off. Had she seen those same iron bands constricting around Van's heart.  
  
YES. The revelation thundered through her, constricting her muscles as her body channeled yet another vision.  
  
Black.the earth was barren, everywhere was scorched bone, scorched wood. The stench rose and almost chocked her, blocking out her reason. She looked up, trying to gain a balance, and what she saw shocked her almost as much. The earth was shinig, a great fireball leviathan of the sky, arcing, realing in its path. The only untouched thing was the gaian moon.  
  
"oh, little seeress, you see?" said a voice behind her. Ice ran up her spine as she truned to face the well known voice.  
  
"Oh yes.silly me, I never introduced myself.Hitomi, but oh, you already know me, or don't you remember" The woman's white teeth gleamed against the bloody darkness of her lips. Hitomi did remember, and began backing away. That little voice that had resided in the midst of her depression, it wasn't part of Hitomi no, it was this creature.  
  
Blood red nails held the leash that kept a struggling beloved form getting loose. The dark woman walked over to him, threw one glance at Hitomi, and leaned down to kiss him. He convulsed, trying to get away, but could do nothing. The woman laughed, going around behind him and running her nails down his chest, slitting the shirt he wore.  
  
"You see Hitomi, I have destroyed everything dear to you, and the man you love so much is my plaything. Now, what are you going to do?" The laugh echoed on and on, dissolving the remains of the vision while Hitomi stood stricken, abandoned on a black battlefield of good and evil. 


	11. Wings

Van felt it immediately as Hitomi feel into unconsciousness, and felt his connection falter. It hurt, making him drink in great breaths to steady himself. His sword clattered to the ground, and lean against the scarred column of wood he had been using as an imagined opponent.  
  
It had never hurt so much before, what if she is dying because of my blood? he thought. Shots of pain traveled up his legs with each trembling step he took to his balcony. He tripped, falling to his hands in knees. The ground blurred, becoming a pattern of gray to his mind.  
  
"HI-TOMI!!!!!"  
  
Van launched himself in the air, a wheeling figure of white in the air trying to reach the third story balcony from the pebbled courtyard. Almost there his wings dissolved in a flurry of feathers and he began to fall. One last thrust with the last remnants of his wings and he tumbled onto the slate stones, stopping at Hitomi's graceful feet.  
  
He crawled his way up til he could cradle her in his arms, slowly saying her name over and over. "Hitomi, Hitomi, Hitomi" he whispered calling her back from the dark recessed she had retreated to. "Hitomi, your safe, come back to me."  
  
She stirred, choking. Oh, van, she thought, you have no idea what pawns we all are. She opened her mouth to tell him what she had seen in her vision, and heard that same horrid voice in her mind.  
  
"oh darling, my hooks may be weaker than I had expected but years of acceptance do WONDERS for one's power. Do you want a little demonstration just how far you and he are both gone? Here let me show you" An echoing laugh left Hitomi shivering.  
  
"Hitomi, what's wrong! Hito-" His words stopped abruptly, and his muscles seized up, crushing Hitomi against his chest. She squirmed and began to struggle even harder yet nary a sound escaped her lips.  
  
Van's eyes were blank, and his movements jerky as his wings sprouted yet again. Merle, until this time forgotten by the two, ran frightened to the corner. She huddled in her hard won silks, watching two of the people she cared most about turn against each other by some outside hand. Something was going on here, something beyond her power to stop, she could but watch and observe, and perhaps get help later, "dear god, help them now" she whispered.  
  
The whistle of the air and the flapping of her clothes alerted Hitomi that she was flying, yet she was still not able to speak. A mute slave to this creature's mercy through van's stregth she could only clutch desperately and try to connect with Van through her mind.  
  
Nothing - or wait, he is there, just bonded so tightly I he cant control anything. If only there were a way to cut his bond! Hitomi thought frustrated at her predicament. She couldn't raise a hand against the one she loves, but neither did she think that she would survive this.  
  
The pendant suddenly flashed in her mind, and with its lightened edge she grasped the sword. Sending of herself into van her body went limp, but in that nether space she sliced at the bond's that Van hung from captive. Each strand was a heartstring, stretched white strands resembling the worms that bore their way through flesh, which cut into his very soul, making the image that was him bleed, that candle in the darkness.  
  
"Just what do you think your doing miss? You can see the state he is in? You should know, you put him there. He sacrificed just enough of his strength for you." Hitomi jerked to a stop, wondering if this woman could be right.  
  
"He saved your life by sharing his strength, and look where it got him. The more you drink of his strength the weaker he gets. Look where he is now, not even able to fight of the most basic of bonds. And it is all your fault, little seer." The slicing voice cast itself from the darkness.  
  
"NO! you are the mistress of lies. I DEFY YOU" Hitomi screamed and slashed at the bonds that held Van.  
  
Forced abruptly back into her body she had but a few moments collect herself. White? Snow? What, why am I so cold, where am I. It came to her. I'm falling, she thought with an air of resigned sorrow. There was nothing she could do now, she would die, and Van would become that woman's pawn-  
  
"Hitomi, spread your wings" a voice sounded ,"you must save him Hitomi, you can save him, by his own sacrifice you must.  
  
What? Hitomi thought. Varie? But I don't have wings. An image appeared in front of her, a raven haired woman in shimmering robes. The woman was holding out her hands, and expression of anger on her face. "Hitomi!" She cried. Hitomi felt a slight shove against her shoulders, and a coldness traveling along her back. With a gasp she saw Feathers falling, and then she was gliding. Rejoicing upon the air she stretched her newfound wings. Varie's chiming voice rang in the air again. "Look below you Hitomi, you must save him." And then her presence receded into nothing ness.  
  
Oh van, she thought, how could I have forgotten you? She dove stretching reaching, praying to whatever god might be listening that she would catch her beloved in time, for she could not exist without him.  
  
She reached for him, as he almost was speared bloodily on the treetops, and curled herself protectively around him, trying to gain height with this extra weight. She succeded in slowing them down until they cleared the forests, landing in a huge field of slowly drifting golden flies which surrounded them curiously in the shifting meadow. 


	12. Awake

The first thing Van noticed upon waking was the warmth of the sun on his bck. A serene feeling brought back the long forgotten memories of his childhood, playing with folken in the golden beams streaming through the emerald leaves of the forest, or sunbathing with Merle while watching cloud dragons and teacups float by. A butterfly lazily floated down and landed on his nose, making him laugh, though the sound was rusty from disuse. He tried to remember what happened, recalling only a vague sense of something going horribly wrong, a pain in his heart - Hitomi's pain.  
  
He sat up suddenly. Hitomi! How could I have forgotten her? He moved to stand up, angry at himself, when he heard a soft sigh beside him. He turned, startled by the scene. Hitomi's hair was a tangled mass of golden strands, gleaming in the morning sun. A flower had fallen across her cheek, a pale blue forget me not, which stood in contrast to her now healthy pallor.  
  
It took Van a moment to realize that he was staring at her back. Her now bare back, slowly rising and falling, the lines of her angel bones still sharp, though dulled somewhat as she had gained back weight. Not quite conscious of what he was doing he reached out and softly, gently, a feather in the breeze, stroked her side.  
  
She stirred then, and sat up, flahsing a smile at his red face. Van, being the epitome of the Gentleman, quickly looked down and breathed hard, telling himself over and over that he was a man and it was perfectly natural now, not to be ashamed or blush, and below that wondering if he was going to get a nosebleed.  
  
Hitomi, having turned around when she noticed that she was less than fully dressed was now in quite a predicament. She was in the middle of a field with the man she was in love with, and was having an attack of modesty, and STILL had no clothes. She did risk a quick, admiring look at Van, and blushed at her thoughts.  
  
Leaves, Hitomi thought, are not the most comfortable of garments. However did Adam and Eve manage that first time.  
  
What leaves are these anyways? I really hope that I didn't manage to pick the Gaian equivalent of poison ivy. It would have been really nice for Van to help me, instead of looking resolutely away. Alas, woe is me, she thought in a fit of melodrama, then laughed at herself.  
  
Van, on the other hand, still walking beside her, was quite worried that they were lost. Hitomi didn't know gaia well enough to pinpoint where they were, and Van had been indisposed during the flight/landing.  
  
Neither of them thought to look back at their wandering footsteps, which were shaped in a perfectly strait line of indentations. They didn't know they were being led, a fact that amused to no end the creature holding the leashes. 


End file.
